Who had the best Triathlon series and why?

Andrew Raynor Dover

Every athlete asks me at some stage should I do the Ironman races or Challenge; what about the newer ones such as Outlaw, the older independent races, or may be the ITU series races that have both short and long races. Coach what’s your favourite?

So this blog is for the real Triathlon tragics it’s not for mass appeal, but for those who want a window of what Triathlon used to be. Just join me for 10 minutes and I’ll tell you a true story of the greatest race series the world has known. But few know very little of it now.

Last weekend family circumstances had me traveling back to Dijon France. This region of Burgundy was a big deal for not just France but the whole of Europe in the ‘Middle Ages’ period of history. It also played a major role in the European start of Trisutto back in 1992, keep the date in mind as all I’m about to say was in place before anyone thought about Triathlon being in the Olympics.

Like most voyages of discovery, we sent out a squad scout Shane Johnson of South Australia and member of our squad, so it was decided Shane would go to France, join a club he was invited to race for and then send back all the information he could, as to the practicality of our young squad following the next year.

Shane’s reconassence seemed completely surreal to us, his excitement and stories of races and prize money just didn’t seem possible.

We at times thought Shane who could nearly match his boss on the story front just waxed lyrical every correspondence, to sum up his words in a sentence “Coach I’ve found the promised land. Races sometimes 4 every weekend, with great prize money, and at least 2 mid week races with money during the August holiday month”

We went about, putting our own club races on in Australia to raise money to fund our squad members to get their shot at the promised land. That is another story in itself but let’s fast forward on us arriving in France. No money, no French language, but a huge hope that we can indeed make a living with Triathlon in France.
Our first bit of luck was we were introduced to a French athlete and his brother Sylvan Daflon, and his brother Herve. In 30 years I have yet to find a Frenchman with a more Australian attitude to life. In fact when we took him back to Australia he fitted right in. Sylvan organised our group to join his club in Macon, which is just south of the Burgundy region. This is where we make the first part of the greatest series start. The club provided us with two apartments to house 8 athletes, and paid for all athlete French licenses.

Our Shane Johnson group did the same with two clubs in a different region. Each club housed and provided race suits and bikes if needed for our guys. While I concentrate on only the region of the trip I took this weekend, this region had exactly the same race opportunities.

Dylan brought out the race schedule for all of France. It was like nothing we had ever seen. 400 races all broken down into races with stars next to them. All with prizemoney, yes you read right, all or they weren’t listed. This took place in a 7 months season. 1 star race had 1000, 750 and 500 Francs in prize money. This was almost 30 years ago with no Olympics on the horizon. Five star races had more money, and paid deeper that we could even imagine.

We decided that we would concentrate with the slower athletes on the Burgundy region, while our best two men and women would travel French wide and take on the best. The next point that amazed us, was Sylvan said you pick the races and who is going and I’ll contact and make arrangements. We thought this is about getting free entry? No, every race even the one star offered us hotel for 3 nights, food during the trip, and an allowance for travel – unless we wanted to travel by train. That was one reason we selected Macon as we could get to anywhere in France by TGV, and the club provided the tickets!

What jogged me to write this for my faithful is because once we crossed the border, I started to reminisce to my wife, this is where we raced that first season, and as we passed little and I mean tiny towns I started pointing out we raced here and what athlete won what races. After 30 minutes she said to me, ‘these little towns could not have all had triathlons with money? Some of these towns are too small?’

Indeed they did! In fact, we planned out our attack on this area pouring over the map like Napoleon before a battle. Each athlete was designated races according to their ability and riding strengths. I’m going to list the places for you, so you can see this was all inside a 100km radius give or take from our destination of Dijon. My wife was astonished, as I was, as every region was the same in France. Here are some memory lane stuff all had prize money and some larger than today 26 years later. Dijon had a great half ironman, then we had our local races Macon, Le Chaplin, Chalon-sur-Saone which I remember well because Sylvan was shocked when we turned up with juniors Ben Bright, his mate Lach and Marc.

Ignoring the advice that ‘they will get killed racing pro, stick to the small local races, it might help their chances‘; Ben just destroyed the field. Out of the water minutes in front and then put two more into them on the bike. Sylvan was in the race, and he never again worried about our feeding ourselves, more about don’t send these boys to my races! We were away, Auxerre, Dole, Troyes, Besançon, Epinal, Pontarliar, Baule-Escoublac, St. Louis, Nevers, Vesoul. All had money races, all in this one region and we won them all – it was the Aussie invasion.

Mulhouse where the great Craig Alexander spent a season honing his skills then on to the bigger ones in the area. Belfort Half Ironman where the great Hamish Carter (yes he rounded out the four in Macon) just destroyed the best in the land, and I still remember the bike ride from the future Olympic champ. And we will apologize to the other races in the area that I’ve forgot to mention that were equal to any race in the world. Still going strong is Gerardmer triathlon a fantastic Triathlon test of skill over half distance, has 6,000 triathletes racing over a week. I sit and chuckle today when I hear a race commentator in the USA say this is a fabulous crowd. People flocked to Gerardmer to see a real vetoes of total Triathlon enthusiasts.

This is one region in France only. So is this why I think it’s the best ? No not really. Let me finish by explaining a French race at every level, from our experience. During our first race, we were all very excited but with no language skills it was difficult. We were told the race starts at 3pm ‘just like football’. Sleep in we were told. Now in Australia, a late race at that time was 8am start. We couldn’t believe it. How do we prepare for a 3pm start? How do we eat? All was new to us.

So on race day about 8:30am, one of the athletes come charging up to me after he had been out for a jog shouting “We have missed it. The race is on now!” I tore out and down to the race sure enough there were athletes everywhere. Finding the race director, he assured me, no no no, 3pm is the pro start. This is the clubs race, the age group race, and the kids race. So be here at 2pm to set up in transition. He answered “if you want lunch come down early between mid day and join us all.“

So, I wandered down early, and this is what I saw! A field completely covered with picnic blankets baskets, and food everywhere. Families having baguettes, cheese and wine. All the French Pros were mixing with the fans. I thought great for us, but the director said, they will all stay for the pro race, and they love to mix with the pros. Before the main race, bring your guys down. They don’t have to eat but it creates an atmosphere for the town.

We raced in towns of 200 and on race day there were 1000 for the picnic. It was surreal, and every race we went to at the provincial level this was a tradition, not a one off, I will point out. Viva la France!

Before the onset of the political power, and joining the Olympics, the French racing circuit, from kids race to ironman races was the greatest race series in the sport.

I’m equally sure that some of our long surviving triathletes, the veterans of 30 years, will confirm how in their part of the world, there was a vibrant Triathlon racing community that provided a great diversity of Triathlon experiences in their area. It could be well argued, that only a few professional athletes yet many administrative personnel have benefited in ITU racing, and that the proliferation of Triathlon would have grown just as much as it has under the Olympic Rings. As in France there were also many half ironman and iron distance races. In France today, if we take out Ironman Nice, the major long races are all thriving, still there after 25 years without an IM brand or Challenge sticker. All still provide a better race experience, and spectator experience.

We finish the observation. When one asks, but what about Nice? It went from the greatest true test of the complete Triathlon with a unique experience, to just another Ironman. If that’s progress you can have.